Government

Declaring the current system irrevocably “broken,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled the Bush administration’s final major surface transportation policy initiative — a reform of the highway program that includes unlimited tolling and an increased emphasis on private capital.

American Trucking Associations last week asked a federal court to block emission-reduction plans by the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that include concessionaire requirements the group said “unlawfully re-regulated the federally de-regulated trucking industry.”

The national average retail price of diesel fell 11.5 cents to $4.603 a gallon last week, the largest one-week drop in nearly two years and the second consecutive weekly decline, the Department of Energy reported.

ExxonMobil Corp. broke its own record for the largest quarterly profit posted by a U.S. company, reporting net earnings of $11.7 billion, or $2.22 a share, up from $10.3 billion, or $1.83, a year ago.

Construction spending fell 0.4% in June, the Commerce Department said Friday.

U.S. manufacturing was stagnant in July, as factory orders plunged to the lowest level in almost seven years, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire said Thursday that it will raise prices by up to 10% on all of its truck, bus, pickup and passenger tires because of higher raw materials costs and persistently high fuel prices.

The U.S. economy grew at a 1.9% annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard has begun setting dates when truckers and others who enter ports in ports must have the government-issued Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, that is meant to prevent terror attacks on the docks.